A fire alarm system is a set of electric/electronic devices/equipment working together to detect and alert people through visual and audio appliances when smoke/fire is present. These alarms may be activated from smoke detectors, heat detectors, water flow sensors, which are automatic or from a manual fire alarm pull station. A burglar alarm, also known as a security alarm, or security system, is a system designed to detect intrusion or unauthorized entry into a building or area. Burglar alarms are used in residential, commercial, industrial, and military properties for protection against burglary (theft) or property damage, as well as personal protection against intruders. In the fields of physical security and information security, access control is the selective restriction of access to a place or other resource. The act of accessing may mean consuming, entering, or using. Permission to access a resource is called authorization. Locks and login credentials are two analogous mechanisms of access control.
Currently, when any of these systems acquires a short or short circuit, the whole system is typically shut down until the short is removed. For example, with a fire alarm, a fire alarm isolation module is a device used only for that purpose, i.e. to isolate a short circuit on the data loop. While a fire alarm isolation module protects the panel, all devices on the data loop stop functioning and therefore the building is left unprotected. These systems, whether it be, fire, burglar, access control, the like, etc., when shut down completely leaving the building unprotected is clearly an undesirable result of a short circuit. As such, there is clearly a need for a device that separates the short circuited device while still maintaining the function of the system (fire, burglar, access control, the like, etc.).
The instant disclosure is designed to provide a smart output protector for fire alarm data loops, burglary alarms, power supplies, access controls, the like, or combinations thereof, that addresses at least some of the above mentioned problems.